Monday, May 31, 2010

What a great Memorial Day weekend. Why can't every weekend be three days long?

I managed to ride my bicycle every work day in May (20 for 20), repeating my April accomplishment. Unfortunately I already know that the streak will end next week, as I have to work in Boston one day, which means I have to take the bus. Oh well. At least now I can take some vacation days and not feel guilty about them.

We made the 15th of 120 scheduled payments on our ten-year mortgage in May. This was the 29th payment since starting our DTM project in January 2008.

The outstanding balance was $97,890.63 at the beginning of May. We made a $1,000 prepayment to go along with our regular payment, which reduced our loan amount to $95,815.47.

We realized $138.98 interest savings in May, bringing the total realized savings to date to $2,236.50.

Our balance is $37,199 lower than it would be if we never made extra principal payments on the ten-year loan. We would still pay off the mortgage 2 years 9 months early if we had to abandon the project at this point.

Thirty-one months remain in our five-year goal period. We must average $3,090.82 principal payments per month to meet the goal. My wife's employment status is once again certain (she found out that her position is no longer on the chopping block), but there are rumors of layoffs happening at my office next week. Hopefully my name is not on the list.

Finally, a quotation from Will Rogers, which was sent to me a while ago by my dad:

"Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want to impress people they don't like."

Although Rogers died decades ago, his words still ring true today. Don't you agree?

Saturday, May 1, 2010

April is gone, and I have no blog entries to show for it. I get Spring Fever around this time of year, and I don't seem to have as much tolerance for sitting in front of the computer. That is not to say that April wasn't an eventful month for us.

First, we sent a huge chunk of money to the US Treasury for tax payments. The bulk of it was settling up our 2009 taxes. Because we've had large tax bills each of the past two years, we'll be sending estimated payments in advance for 2010, in the hopes that we won't have to take such a big hit next spring. Our first 2010 estimated payment went through in April. Our total tax payments this month dwarfed the amount of money we spent on the mortgage (which is usually our largest spending category).

Second, my wife learned that her position at work is going to be phased out over the next few months. Fortunately, her manager seems to value her abilities, and has asked her about moving into a new opportunity that just opened up. Talks with HR are pending, but it appears that my wife might even be able to increase her salary if the new position works out. We're keeping our fingers crossed, hoping for good news here. (By the way, no news is good news as far as my job is concerned).

Third, for the first time ever, I managed to ride my bicycle to the office on every single work day in a month. There were 21 work days in April, and I was on the bicycle for all 21 of them. It helped that the snow and ice are behind us, but I did ride through my fair share of rainy days. Strangely, even though I feel like I'm in great physical shape, I find that I've been steadily gaining weight over the past few years. I can't tell where it's accumulating on my body, however. My wife thinks it's all going to my legs.

Because we had to set aside cash for the tax payments, we had only a token amount available for extra payment on the mortgage in April. We made the 14th of 120 scheduled payments on the ten-year mortgage, and the 28th overall since we began the DTM project in January 2008.

At the start of April, our outstanding balance was $99,639.41. We added $500 to our required monthly payment, which reduced the balance to $97,980.63.

We had realized interest savings of $136.52 in April, bringing the total savings to date to $2,097.51.

Our mortgage balance is $36,060 lower than it would have been without making any past principal prepayments. We would pay off the loan 2 years and 9 months early if we stopped making extra payments going forward.

There are 32 months left in our five-year goal period. We have to average $3,061.89 in principal payments per month to meet our goal. Since the big tax bill is in the books, we should have an opportunity to get ourselves back on track for meeting our 2010 goal. It would be much easier for us to plan for upcoming payments if my wife is able to get confirmation of her new position at work. We're hoping this process doesn't drag out any longer than it has to.

About Me

My wife and I paid off our mortgage in April 2011, three years and four months after we set this goal for ourselves. We are now working to save (and grow) an income-producing portfolio. We hope to replace our full-time employment with income from investments within the next decade.